MOS-FET having a channel connection, and method for the production of a MOS-FET having a channel connection
A MOSFET comprising a substrate of a semiconductor material; source/drain regions, which are arranged at a distance from each other at a surface of the substrate; a gate electrode arranged above an area of the surface of the substrate between the source/drain regions, the gate electrode being electrically insulated from the semiconductor material; at least one recess in the gate electrode, a through-contact arranged in the recess of the gate electrode, the through-contact being electrically insulated from the gate electrode; a terminal contact on the semiconductor material; and a terminal conductor arranged on the side of the gate electrode that faces away from the substrate, wherein the through-contact electrically connects the terminal contact to the terminal conductor.
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This is a U.S. national stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2008/051575, filed on Feb. 8, 2008.
This patent application claims the priority of German patent application no. 10 2007 012 380.0 filed Mar. 14, 2007, the disclosure content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention concerns MOSFETs with improved snapback characteristics, especially symmetric MOSFETs with large channel width.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONIn a MOSFET, doped regions for source and drain are doped oppositely to the surrounding semiconductor material, in which the source/drain regions are embedded and which forms the channel region between the source/drain regions. This can be the semiconductor material with the basic doping of the substrate or a doped well formed in the substrate. The substrate or the well is called the body. The source, channel and drain correspond to the emitter, base and collector of a parasitic bipolar transistor. When this parasitic bipolar transistor becomes conducting, which is called the snapback effect, the blocking voltage and the switching rate of the MOSFET, especially a power MOSFET, are considerably degraded. The parasitic bipolar transistor is switched on by body currents, which cause a voltage drop in the substrate, which leads to a forward voltage of the pn junction between source and body. To eliminate this undesired effect, the source and body are short circuited via an ohmic resistance, for which a body terminal is provided.
This problem is especially serious in the case of symmetric MOSFETs, since their body terminal contacts are located far from the regions in which the body current is produced. Since the gain or amplification factor in the case of a parasitic npn transistor is much greater than in the case of a pnp transistor, mainly N channel MOSFETs are affected by the snapback effect.
Methods for avoiding snapback in the case of high voltage MOSFETs are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,275. A buried p+ layer under the channel is proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,493 describes a power MOSFET in which the current amplification of the npn transistor is reduced by providing in its structure a region in which recombination of charge carriers with a relatively low lifetime is provided for the excess majority charge carriers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is an object of the invention to provide a MOSFET with improved snapback characteristics.
This and other objects are attained in accordance with one aspect of the present invention directed to a MOSFET comprising a substrate of a semiconductor material; source/drain regions, which are arranged at a distance from each other at a surface of the substrate; a gate electrode arranged above an area of the surface of the substrate between the source/drain regions, the gate electrode being electrically insulated from the semiconductor material; at least one recess in the gate electrode, a through-contact arranged in the recess of the gate electrode, the through-contact being electrically insulated from the gate electrode; a terminal contact on the semiconductor material; and a terminal conductor arranged on the side of the gate electrode that faces away from the substrate, wherein the through-contact electrically connects the terminal contact to the terminal conductor.
Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a method for producing a MOSFET, comprising the steps of forming source/drain regions at a distance from each other at a surface of a substrate of semiconductor material; arranging a gate electrode above an area of the surface of the substrate present between the source/drain regions and being electrically insulated from the semiconductor material; providing the gate electrode with at least one recess; arranging a through-contact, that is electrically isolated from the gate electrode, in at least one recess of the gate electrode, so that the through-contact forms a terminal contact on the semiconductor material; and forming a terminal conductor at the through-contact.
In a MOSFET according to an embodiment of the invention, the channel region is provided on the upper side with terminal contacts that are connected to an associated terminal wire. For this the gate electrode is provided with recesses through which the through-contacts are brought, which are electrically isolated from the gate electrode. In this way a plurality of body terminal contacts is provided in the region of the channel.
The cross section of
The cross section in
In
The MOSFET can in particular be made as a completely isolated power MOSFET. A corresponding embodiment is shown in
With the MOSFET according to an embodiment of the invention the body terminal is thus provided directly in the channel region of a preferably symmetric transistor. The maximum spacing between the regions in which the body current is produced and the body terminal contacts is thus independent of the overall dimension of the device. The intermediate space between the body terminal contacts can, as a parameter of the device, be optimized without additional measures, namely so that the snapback voltage becomes sufficiently high with as few body contacts as possible. With that, the number of body contacts can be kept sufficiently low to keep the on-resistance of the device sufficiently low.
As the described embodiments show, a frame-shaped or ring-shaped body terminal region can, with the MOSFET in accordance with the invention, basically be present or can be left out. Contact regions 16 provided on the channel region, for realization of a low metal-semiconductor transition, are highly doped and, for example, are made together with implantations for the usually highly doped contact regions. This can take place in a self-aligned manner with respect to the recesses 18 provided in gate electrode 3.
The invention is suitable for symmetric high voltage transistors, especially for power n-MOSFETS, but is basically also applicable in the case of other MOSFETs too. In the case of symmetric MOSFETs, the terminal contacts 15 of the channel region can be arranged along a straight line from which the source/drain regions 2 have the same spacing.
The scope of protection of the invention is not limited to the examples given hereinabove. The invention is embodied in each novel characteristic and each combination of characteristics, which includes every combination of any features which are stated in the claims, even if this combination of features is not explicitly stated in the claims.
Claims
1. A MOSFET comprising:
- a substrate of a semiconductor material;
- source/drain regions, which are arranged at a distance from each other at a surface of the substrate;
- a gate electrode arranged above an area of the surface of the substrate between the source/drain regions, the gate electrode being electrically insulated from the semiconductor material;
- at least one recess in the gate electrode, a through-contact arranged in the recess of the gate electrode, the through-contact being electrically insulated from the gate electrode;
- a terminal contact on the semiconductor material; and
- a terminal conductor arranged on a side of the gate electrode that faces away from the substrate, wherein the through-contact electrically connects the terminal contact to the terminal conductor.
2. The MOSFET of claim 1, wherein the terminal contact forms a substrate contact or a well contact for a doped well formed in the substrate.
3. The MOSFET of claim 1, further comprising a region that is highly doped by comparison with the adjacent semiconductor material, the terminal contact being situated on the region.
4. The MOSFET of claim 1, further comprising:
- a contact region that is highly doped by comparison with the adjacent semiconductor material, the terminal contact being situated on the contact region, and
- the contact region being formed self-aligned to the through-contact.
5. The MOSFET of claim 1, further comprising:
- a contact region that is highly doped by comparison with the adjacent semiconductor material, the terminal contact being situated on the contact region, and
- the contact region being formed self-aligned to the recess or self-aligned to the recess that is reduced in size by side wall spacers.
6. The MOSFET according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a plurality of terminal contacts, the terminal contacts each being formed by a through-contact arranged in a recess of the gate electrode on the semiconductor material, and
- the terminal contacts being arranged along a straight line, from which the source/drain regions have the same distance.
7. The MOSFET according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a doped first well, the source/drain regions being arranged in the doped first well, and
- a second well that is oppositely doped to the doped first well, the doped first well being arranged in the second well.
8. The MOSFET of claim 7, further comprising:
- a contact region, the first well being provided with the contact region;
- a terminal conductor; and
- a through-contact, which electrically connects the contact region of the first well to the terminal conductor.
9. The MOSFET according to claim 1, wherein the MOSFET is a high voltage transistor.
10. A method for producing a MOSFET, comprising the steps of:
- forming source/drain regions at a distance from each other at a surface of a substrate of semiconductor material;
- arranging a gate electrode above an area of the surface of the substrate present between the source/drain regions and being electrically insulated from the semiconductor material;
- providing the gate electrode with at least one recess;
- arranging a through-contact, that is electrically isolated from the gate electrode, in at least one recess of the gate electrode, so that the through-contact forms a terminal contact on the semiconductor material; and
- forming a terminal conductor at the through-contact.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:
- after the formation of the recess of the gate electrode and before the formation of the through-contact, applying a dielectric and providing a contact hole in the region of the recess, the surface of the substrate being exposed in the contact hole;
- performing an implantation of a dopant in the contact hole, the implantation forming a contact region in the semiconductor material;
- filling the contact hole with electrically conducting material; and
- arranging the contact hole within the recess in such a fashion that the dielectric electrically insulates the through-contact around the through-contact.
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:
- after the formation of the recess of the gate electrode and before the formation of the through-contact, performing an implantation of dopant, the implantation producing a contact region in the semiconductor material self-aligned to the recess.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
- before the implantation of dopant to form the contact region, forming side wall spacers on side walls of the recess.
14. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:
- before the formation of the gate electrode, forming a doped region, on which the terminal contact is formed.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Feb 8, 2008
Date of Patent: Sep 25, 2012
Patent Publication Number: 20100148257
Assignee: austriamicrosystems AG (Unterpremstätten)
Inventor: Georg Röhrer (Graz)
Primary Examiner: Kyoung Lee
Attorney: Cozen O'Connor
Application Number: 12/531,304
International Classification: H01L 21/8249 (20060101);